NOTE: I'm not a doctor, and particularly not yours, so there may be factors I'm unaware of. Therefore all advice is of a general nature and you should consult your doctor before following any of it, especially before changing med doses.

Just to make this known - there are police officers, currently, who have been on antidepressants, and have stayed on antidepressants. They don't come out and announce it to the world, but I wouldn't be surprised if the numbers were significant enough to show, these same officers can still perform their jobs up to par, like any other respected law enforcement official, while on antidepressant medications.

However, don't assume you'll be cured from your anxiety disorder, five years from now. From my life experience I've learned that anxiety disorders are chronic, meaning they last a life time, and there is no *cure* where they don't came back. Whether you decide to believe me, you'll have to learn this from your own life experience. Many people don't want to admit this, and I could argue until I'm blue when I say this, but anxiety disorders do not come and go, instead they are not curable.

But in regards to your original post, what I think you are really saying is " "Will I be discriminated against for taking medication if I were to apply for employment as a police officer?"

And I will say:

Yes. There could be discrimination against you for taking psychotropic medications - in any profession - not just the law enforcement sector. As there is discrimination against someone's medical, psychiatric disability, there is also discrimination because of skin color, sex, race, religion, income status, age, sexual orientation, etc. So even if you were to drop the police officer path, you could still be discriminated in another profession, not just police enforcement. Fortunately there are laws that protect us from employment discrimination.

But with that said, my attitude still is -- Who gives a SH1T if there are narrow minded people who may discriminate against you from being a police officer, because you take antidepressants? FUC# THEM. If you want to be a police officer, then go for it. FU#K THE HATERZ. If you need medication (regardless of whether you want to be on medication) then you're going to have to stay on it, otherwise you are going to repeat the last two years of life over and over and over. Anxiety disorders just don't go away, and many need to be on medication (for life) to control them., at least for now, until technology learns how to repair the brain.

Likewise a good lawyer could easily file a case on your behalf, if it were to happen, so you wouldn't be singled out for being on antidepressants, if you were more than qualified, just like any other person who wanted to be a police officer, without your medical disability.

Quacks prey on us Anxiety Disorder sufferers as part of the Mental Health community, since we can be desperate for healing. Don't be victimized, instead be EDUCATED about QUACKERY!!!!! http://www.quackwatch.com/

You've mentioned in previous posts that you've been through prolonged periods of stress, like the past two years.

If you haven't reached twenty one yet, those stressful years of your life before twenty one, will more than likely have affected how your brain developed. Personally I vouch this as true, since my early years were stressful before I reached twenty one, and my brain never fully recovered. This is the reason I still have an anxiety disorder; however I do take medication (Zoloft), and this has repaired my brain, where I can keep my anxiety disorder under control.

However, at any age, prolonged stress/anxiety affects the brain, negatively, where it kills brain cells.. In that hyperlink, I linked to studies done over a ten year period validating this is true. This is why soldiers who were stationed in places like the Middle East over two years come back traumatized. Based on all the crazy SH!T they saw in war, all the fear and stress had a negative impact on their brain, and the brain became stuck in fear mode, even when they left the war, due to the destruction of brain cells in the brain's hippocampus.

I know most people who have an anxiety disorder don't want to hear this. So many will try alternative methods to cure their anxiety disorder, because they think it's curable, but these alternative methods never fully work. And so you may find this theory ridiculous, and think it's a fuckin6 joke.

Regardless, there is a lot of truth to what I say, for people who are little older and have life experience to validate this, however you may have to go through more life experience to believe it.

But whether you stay on antidepressants for life or not, isn't really the point here --- I just hope you don't let antidepressants stop you from being a police officer, whether you are on them for now, or will be in the future, if that is really what you want to do.

Quacks prey on us Anxiety Disorder sufferers as part of the Mental Health community, since we can be desperate for healing. Don't be victimized, instead be EDUCATED about QUACKERY!!!!! http://www.quackwatch.com/

And lastly ..... My mother and aunt have both fully recovered from their teen anxiety which is similar to mine and haven't relapsed yet and their now in their 40s soo....

I think your mother is medication phobic, meaning she just doesn't want to take medication. Being med phobic doesn't constitute as a recovery or cure for an anxiety disorder, it just means the person won't take meds.

However you've mentioned that she's a natural health practitioner in one of your Med posts. I guess she's tried all these alternative methods to manage her anxiety disorder. If she was fully cured, she would have chosen another profession, like accounting, which doesn't involve any study in anxiety. My assumption for most people in a healing profession is that they have also have a very similiar health condition. Due to that health condition, it motivates their desire to be in that profession to maintain their own health condition, like anxiety. If they felt cured, they would leave the profession, and choose something else.

I know I don't know your mother, and I don't mean to be critical about her. I've just noticed that people in health professions always have health conditions like their patients.

For example, you'll note the average accountant's doesn't really have high anxiety concerns, as does a natural health provider. That accountant doesn't keep up with all these methods to control their anxiety, like reading books or going to workshops, because they're probably not anxious. That's because a typical accountant doesn't have a brain problem, so they don't need medication or alternative therapy to alleviate it. They just focus on numbers without worrying about mental health, because there is no problem with their brain.

For your grandmother, hasn't she bee on medication to control her anxiety?

And .... when I say "under control," I am saying the medication keeps my anxiety disorder under control, or specifically it helps my brain recuperate itself, since my brain doesn't produce enough brain cells to support my hippocampus properly. So like a diabetic injects insulin prior to eating, I take medication for my brain, to control it's abnormal development in the hippocampus, which if not properly medicated, produces prolonged anxiety.

Quacks prey on us Anxiety Disorder sufferers as part of the Mental Health community, since we can be desperate for healing. Don't be victimized, instead be EDUCATED about QUACKERY!!!!! http://www.quackwatch.com/

I mean I consider living a normal happy life recovery ... Obviously there's no cure the human mind has a memory things will always come back but that's life... I think u were getting just a little too scientific for me no offense ... My mother said she is actually happy she suffered for years like she did because she learned a lot and now lives life in a happier more appreciative way

Sorry. I should condense things, prior to hitting post, to get to a point. I don't mean to psychoanalyze anyone, just based on my assumptions in life. Again no offense to your Mom, especially since I don't even know her.

Everyone has a different standard of happiness. I maybe pushing my medication standard on to you, unintentionally. As you are well aware, I'm pro-medication. However everyone is different about meds and how they manage a health condition, like an anxiety disorder. So others don't take meds, and are fine with that too.

Whether or not you take meds for the long run, just do it because you want too. I just gave you my view of it, so take what you like and relate too, but definitely spit the rest out.

Just don't let other people opinion's sway your choice to be on antidepressants, if you need to be.

Quacks prey on us Anxiety Disorder sufferers as part of the Mental Health community, since we can be desperate for healing. Don't be victimized, instead be EDUCATED about QUACKERY!!!!! http://www.quackwatch.com/

I am very pro medication .... As I said my aunt and uncle have been On anti depressants for a while now ... My mom is just skeptical because she doesn't like the effects they have on the body which I could care less about ... I've just been programmed with this anxiety and depression for two years now that it's not gonna be an easy road back which sucks ... I may never be the same person I was before all of this but that sure as hell doesn't mean I can't become happy again in my eyes ... When I take a xanax yeah it calms me down but all my problems are still there... I would imagine antidepressants trigger more of the thought process healing, and uplifting more than a xanax that just calms you down for a little while, I'm just so sick of dealing with all this , but in my eyes I need an antidepressant because my thought pattern is the stem of it all